Also, I love the exchange between Uhura and Sulu in “The Naked Time”, where Sulu says “I’ll protect you, fair maiden” and Uhura says “sorry, neither “

I like how Lokai is hanging out in the crew lounge while Bele is enjoying a private drink with the ship's top officers. It's a subtle way of showing the power dynamic between the two.

They must HATE mirrors

To be fair to Stiles, the Romulan commander does also look exactly like Spock's father.

I think the best part of Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is that it's not immediately clear you're looking at a racism parable at all, because the differences between the two actors' makeup doesn't seem immediately relevant, and it takes a while for either character to bring it up directly. So you're seeing Bele insist on these conclusions based on racism before you even know that's what's going on, and it seems rightfully unreasonable and ridiculous, in a way that racism actually does when you're outside of the awareness of it; I've occasionally got the same experience when I see online racist discourse from a country I'm not familiar with.

I believe had the show placed blame, it never would've aired. I'm 65, black woman and original Trekkie (watching since it originally aired). I also think the message would've never been received by the people who actually needed to hear it's message had it clearly laid out fault and blame. Also, anyone black who watched TV in the 1960's knows how much we appreciated any time black people were on TV and they weren't a stereotype/janitor/maid. We literally called each other and reminded to watch when Ed Sullivan featured black entertainers. So Lincoln's conversation with Uhura was actually appreciated at the time. It needs to be looked at through 1960's eyes and not 2000’s.😊 Appreciate your covering this and your insights.

I mentioned on my thing that I was always curious what George Takei thought about that aspect of Balance of Terror. Stiles's attitude toward Spock, that he can't be trusting now because he just looks like our enemy was the same sentiment behind the interment of Japanese-Americans which, as you point out, Takei was a victim of himself.

How dare you compare plain oatmeal, the most wonderful of bland breakfasts, to cold fries, a horrid abomination of thermodynamics. This means war!

My mentor growing up, Al, was a black man who served in the US Navy (in the 1970s, I think) and later became a civil rights activist and martial arts instructor. He told me many anecdotes from his life. One, that is relevant here, was about his time in the navy. The majority of the sailors were white and would say some terribly racist shit to him that he was not ok with. Al didn't dare show that it upset him, as that probably would have made the rest of his tour miserable, and he either kept his mouth shut or would return insults in a "kidding" way. Those same sailors would at other times act as if they were friends despite the awful shit they said, but it did not make Al any more comfortable with the racist jabs they threw at him other days.
I do wonder if the way Spock and McCoy was written was based off of the writers observing similar dynamics, of white men being racists to their colleagues and their colleagues just taking it with a grin and the occasional jab back, because that was all they could get away with doing.

It feels almost too neat not to be an intentional parallel - Kirk threatens mutual destruction of his entire ship; his crew, the people he is responsible for; in order to free them from their will even temporarily being subjugated by Beale. At this point in the series it wasn't a well worn trope - the writers brought the self destruct in intentionally.

I wonder if there was ever a draft where this comparison was made explicit.  

E.g. (apologies, am not a script writer)
Kirk: "How tragic, they annihilated each other"
Spock: "Each other? Captain, you were willing to lay down all our lives so that Beale could not compel us against our will. You only backed down when Beale himself relented. Was it wrong of you to fight to the death for our own freedom?
We may never know what really happened on that planet, but it would be logical to assume that the oppressors who had the power could have relented at any time. They are the ones who let hatred destroy both those peoples."

16:10 I always took it that to Uhura it was like someone in our era called like a snollygoster or hobbledehoy or some other long dead slur. We’d be more confused than insulted. Like “look, trying to insult me by saying I’m ‘acting like a Spaniard’ just doesn’t mean anything in this age, Lincoln. We don’t even have the cultural context for that shit anymore”. It felt more like it was aspirational as  the problems of racism the audience was struggling with then and now will be as dead as dogshit by the era of Star Trek. We’ll beat it. People will be judged on the content of their character. I mean, fuck, we beat capitalism by the era of Star Trek. Anything is possible

I can somewhat credit TOS for helping me not be racist because when I watched as a little kid in the late 70s/early 80s, I just took it for granted that people from all walks of life did cool stuff together in space. It's ironic that my dad loved Star Trek so much because he had plenty of soft racist beliefs. Insofar as the Battlefield episode goes, I agree that they did fumble the ball, miss the layup and otherwise failed to throw out the guy at home (trying to get all the sports metaphors in)...but my takeaway as a kid was "those silly men are fighting over superficial reasons! They look alike, basically!"

I first saw this episode as a kid around 1988 and when Bele said, “he’s black on his right side,” I replied out loud, “Huh?! What difference does it make if he’s black or… OHHHH…” Blew my sheltered white kid mind 😂

I really enjoy your reviews that challenge the “sanctity” of Star Trek, Steve! As you pointed out, this one gets a lot right about racism and prejudice, but I never really thought about how far the ending falls short of hammering that message home after such a good buildup… great video, Steve!

I've never really liked the argument that Spock is "okay with" all of McCoy's racist remarks just because he's willing to tolerate them. Especially now that I've started rewatching TOS: there's an episode early on where due to PLOT, Spock starts to lose control of his emotions a bit, and one of the first things he does is take McCoy to task for all of his racism and very explicitly and emphatically says "I don't like it."

Spock's not limiting his reactions to McCoy to a raised eyebrow here and there, or the occasional repartee, because he's cool with McCoy and they have a mutual respect for one another... he's controlling his reactions because A) it's the logical thing to do, and B.) it's the professional thing to do.

His lack of response isn't an affirmation of McCoy's behavior, it's a condemnation.

I'm not a big family guy fan, but I am reminded of a time when a cutaway gag kind of got it right. Peter says something like, "Wow, things haven't been this tense since we freed the slaves." Cut to a white guy unshackling a black guy and then saying, "There, you're free to go. So, we're cool, right?" The implication is that things have a very very long way to go before they are cool

Thinking about McCoy’s anti-Vulcan racism got me thinking: Spock has clearly been dealing with racism and intolerance his entire life, but it’s almost certain that it usually comes from the opposite direction. The first Kelvinverse movie has that great scene where young Spock is set upon by Vulcan classmates belittling him for his human heritage.

I don’t want to claim that Spock actively likes McCoy’s intolerance, but his inner monologue might be something along the lines of “you’re damn fucking straight I’m a Vulcan, asshole. I earned every last one of those ‘pointy-eared’ comments.”

It also puts Spock’s line (from “The Menagerie”?) “I see no reason to insult me, sir” into a new light.

An important thing to remember: no one plays the same role in life that characters in a fictional piece play. I always that similar things about LTBYLB that Steve said - great build up but flat ending - but it's important to remember that what we see is on screen is not what happens in real life. A person can grow through experience and education to correct their own faults, but characters in a television show are usually static and can't change because they are constructed to play a specific archetype.

Way back in the early 1970s, I realized that words - racial, ethnic, gender or sexual - that I said when I was 6 or so to fit in with my classmates didn't make me better than anyone and in fact only elevated me because I was putting down others. This lesson was taught to me by several of my seven uncles who served in Vietnam with Hispanic and Black troops who had, because they did what they were supposed to, saved their lives. I was told by one uncle that racism is wrong because "when I was in the shit in 'Nam, so were they and we had to work together to survive."

If only it didn't take wars to learn that lesson.

If they really wanted that gut-punch Twilight Zone twist ending, it'd only take small adjustments to nail the message:

They arrive to planet Cheron and find Lokai's people to have been completely exterminated. Bele is surprised by the news, but overall reacts positively; everyone else reels at the revelation, disgusted. In respond to the news, Kirk refuses to let Bele take Lokai down to the planet. He gives an impassioned speech: "You have your victory, now go!" Kirk's speech works for some reason, similarly to the other times Kirk's speeches have coincidentally caused the result that the writers wanted to happen to occur.

Bele beams down, but is surprised by what he finds. His people do not greet him with open arms. While he has been away, the people of Cheron have moved on to new prejudices, and Bele does not find himself on a side of social privilege. He's taken into custody, and he used his magic-alien-techno-mage powers to relay a signal to the Enterprise. Uhura tells Kirk they are getting a message, and he nods, approving her to tune in, which is something they have to do for some reason, even though this is a message being sent by a magic alien techno mage. It's Bele, screaming. Panicked. Begging for Asylum.

Bones gives an exasperated look to Kirk. Kirk orders,

"Get us back to Starbase 4, Mr. Sulu. Star Fleet will want to process Mr. Lokai's sanctuary request."

Credits roll.

Well Kirk shouldn't have brought the Riddler on board in the first place.

Darn, more sad Star Trek news.  Harris Yulin died.   I remember him s the judge in Ghostbusters II, but he was recently featured on Steve's discussion of the DS9 Episode of Duet, where he played the guilt-ridden Cardassian pretending to be a war criminal.